Means and method for detecting the effective position of flaws in cloth webs on cloth laying tables



Nov. 17, 1970 A. F. DI CANIO 3,540,830 MEANS AND METHOD FOR DETECTING THE EFFECTIVE POSITION OF FLAWS IN CLOTH WEBS ON CLOTH LAYING TABLES Filed July 3, 196? 3; I34 7 nmmunnnnmnnnnnnmnnnnnnnnnfi ,2

1 q ,2; mum I H Q) Q) //7 0 J2 i P2 f3 United States. Patent 3,540,830 MEANS AND METHOD FOR DETECTING THE EFFECTIVE POSITION OF FLAWS 1N CLOTH WEBS ON CLOTH LAYING TABLES Anthony F. DiCanio, Elmhurst, N.Y., assignor to Cutting Room Appliances Corp., New York, N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed July 3, 1967, Ser. No. 650,882

Int. Cl. A411 3/00 US. Cl. 356-156 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An optical system for projecting a cloth cutting pattern upon the exposed surface of the upper most lamina of a cloth web to determine whether a flaw existing in the web lies within an area which will be cut out as waste, or within an area which will ultimately form a piece of a garment.

This invention relates generally to the field of cloth laying machines, and more particularly to an improved means and method for detecting the effective position of flaws in a cloth web as the same is laid upon a cloth laying table.

When laying certain types of woven or other fabrics, because of the nature of the weave, a large number of flaws are encountered over relatively short web lengths. The presence of these flaws does not necessarily reflect upon the quality of the goods, but, obviously, such flaws cannot be allowed to appear in the finished garment which is made from pieces cut from the web. It is known in the art to run the bolt of cloth, prior to laying it upon a cloth laying table, over an inspection machine, and the flaws are noted and marked upon the selvedge. Following this inspection, the cloth is rerolled and laid on the cloth laying table prior to cutting.

Conventional practice calls for the marking up of patterns in periodic sections, so that where a flaw exists in a particular section the cloth may be cut from the web, and replaced by additional cloth at that point. The determination of whether the flaw lies within a critical area is made by observing the presence of one or more flaws during a single pass of the cloth laying carriage over the table, and the unrolling of a paper pattern on to the exposed surface of the uppermost cloth lamina. This process is extremely time consuming, and very often calls for the unrolling of the pattern at least once during each pass of the carriage, with consequent loss of time. It will be observed that even if the noted flaw lies outside of the critical area, it is still necessary to unroll the pattern thereover to make this determination visually, and subsequently reroll the pattern, so that the cloth laying operation may proceed.

It is therefore among the principal objects of the present invention to provide an improved means for determining the position of noted flaws in a cloth web with respect to the pattern, in which the above described procedure may be materially simplified.

Another object of the invention lies in the provision of an improved optical projection means mounted upon the cloth laying carriage, and traveling therewith, adapted to project an image of the pattern upon the upper surface of the cloth web, that section of the pattern concerned being readily indexed to position for projection within a short time interval.

Another object of the invention lies in the provision of an improved device of the class described which may be conveniently installed upon existing cloth laying machine carriages, with a minimum of modification.

Still another object of the invention lies in the provision of an improved optical projection means incorporating a pattern to be cut in the form of a film strip transparency which may be readily replaced as required in accordance with the actual pattern to which the cloth being laid will be cut.

A further object of the invention lies in the provision of improved means of the class described, in which the cost of fabrication may be of a relatively low order, with consequent wide sale, distribution and use.

A feature of one of the disclosed embodiments lies in the provision of means whereby the selection of an individual frame to be projected corresponds to the position of the projector with respect to the cloth laying table automatically, by virtue of automatic advancement means operated by tripping means on the table cooperating with the cloth laying carriage.

These objects and features, as well as other incidental ends and advantages, will more fully appear in the progress of the following disclosure, and be pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawing, to which reference will be made in the specification, similar reference characters have been employed to designate corresponding parts throughout the several views.

FIG. 1 is a view in elevation of an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view in elevation of the projector element, with part of the casing removed to show detail.

FIG. 3 is a view in elevation showing a film transparency the individual exposed frames of which include sections of a predetermined cloth cutting pattern.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of a cloth laying table which has been marked to indicate corresponding sections on a web of cloth laid thereon.

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary view in elevation showing an alternate form of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a view in elevation corresponding to that seen in FIG. 2, but showing the alternate form of projector element.

In accordance with the invention, FIG. 1 discloses an embodiment thereof, generally indicated by reference character 10, including a conventional cloth laying table 11, wheels 12 and 13 supporting a conventional cloth laying carriage 14 as well as support means 15 for a cloth roll 16. Mounted on the carriage 14 is a supporting frame work 17, the free end thereof supporting the casing 18 of an optical projector 19.

The projector 19 is of a strip film projecting type, including a conventional source of illumination 20 powered through a slipper or pantograph 21 which slides along a power line 22, power being controlled from a source (not shown) by switch means 23. If desired, the source of power may be self contained, or power may be trammitted through conductors incorporated into or supported by the frame work 17.

A set of condenser lenses 24 overlies a film gate, the opening in which (not shown) overlies a wide angle projection lens 26. A film supply spool 27 is mounted upon a horizontally supported spindle 28, and a take up spool 29 is supported by similar spindle 30. Manually engageable cranks 31 and 32 (FIG. 1) permit the film strip to be advanced or rewound as required, while a manually operated frame counting means 33 permits precise align ment of a frame within the gate 25 for projection.

Referring to FIG. 3 in the drawing, in the disclosed embodiment the film strip 34 is preferably of perforated 35 mm. or 70 mm. type the side edges 35 and 36 being provided with conventional projections to facilitate operation of the means 33. The individual projectable frames, three of which are indicated by reference characters 38, 39 and 40 are exposed and developed to reproduce an 3 indivdual Section on an elongated paper pattern, and preferably includes the number of the section within the projectable area, so that it may be readily matched to the corresponding section on the table during projection.

Referring to FIG. 4, the upper surface 42 of the table 11 is similarly marked by index 43, the number of sections depending upon the length of the table and corresponding pattern. To facilitate convenient wide angle projection, the length of a. section bears a reasonable relation to the width of the same, and in an ideal situation, the section is square in configuration.

Operation of the device will now be apparent. Before the commencement of a cloth laying operation, a strip of film 34 is loaded into the projector 19, the principal axis of which is midway between the side edges of the cloth laying table, and perpendicular thereto. In the disclosed embodiment, this is most conveniently accomplished by running the cloth laying carriage to the right hand end of the table, in which position the alignment thereto is facilitated.

Next, the cloth laying carriage is started to traverse the surface of the table while continuously dispensing a web of cloth thereupon. As mentioned hereinabove, the presence of flaws has been previously indicated during the inspection procedure, and the carriage is permitted to travel until the first flaw appears on the table, At this point, the carriage is stopped, the particular section of the pattern involved is determined, and the film strip is advanced to project the corresponding section. The exact location of the projector may be determined by aligning the side edge of the project frame with the corresponding indicia on the upper surface of the table. The pattern as the same will ultimately be out immediately appears on the upper surface of the uppermost lamina, and a visual determination can then be made as to whether the flaw appears in a critical area. If the flaw lies outside the crictical area, the cloth laying operation may be continued. If not, depending upon the location, an entire section of cloth may be cut out and replaced from the web, or merely a patch may be placed of sufficient size to permit the cutting of another part correspondingto the damaged part. Where relatively few sections in the entire pattern are involved, the film strip may be correspondingly short, and the adjustment conveniently accomplished manually, it being necessary only to advance the film strip a relatively few number of frames.

At the completion of the cloth laying operation, the paper pattern corresponding to the projected pattern on the film strip is then overlaid on the now laid cloth, and the cutting operation proceeds ina normal manner.

Turning now to the alternate form of the embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6, parts corresponding to those of the principal form have been designated by similar reference characters with the additional prefix 1.

The alternate form of the embodiment differs from the principal form in the provision of means whereby the frames in the film strip are automatically advanced with the traverse of the cloth laying carriage over the table, thereby eliminating the necessity of making manual adjustment upon the determination of a flaw.

To accomplish this end, the frame counting means 49 is of a type used in 35 mm. type still cameras, in' which one revolution of the same determines the advancement of a single frame, and selective detent means engages a movable stop or lug to result in arresting the counting means such that the frame will be precisely positioned within the film gate. Referring to FIG. 6, the frame counting means 49 is controlled by an electrically operated solenoid 50 which disengages the same upon actuation, to permit a spring motor 51 to wind the film strip until the frame counting means 49 is again arrested, at which time the adjoining frame is properly positioned within the film gate. Operation of the solenoid 51 results from the contact of a switch 52 on the carriage 114 as the same contacts a plurality of switch operating means 53 disposed upon the surface of the table 111. Thus, as the carriage traverses each indicated section on the table, an individual frame in correspondence thereto is automatically advanced.

I wish it to be understood that I do not consider the invention limited to the precise details of structure shown and set forth in this specification, for obvious modifica tions will occur to those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains.

I claim:

1. Means for use in conjunction with a cloth laying machine for determining the location of flaws in a web of cloth being laid upon a cloth laying table, in relation to a predetermined cutting pattern, said cloth laying machine including a cloth laying carriage, comprising: Optical projector means mounted on said carriage for movement therewith to project an image upon the exposed upper surface of said web of cloth, said projector having a projectible film corresponding to said predetermined cutting pattern, and projected to form said image, and means for selecting an indivdual area of said film for projection, said area being selected on the basis of which section of the pattern is to be cut from that segment of the Web of cloth instantaneously disposed beneath said projector.

2. Structure in accordance with claim 1, said projector including a film strip having individual frames thereon, each frame corresponding to a predetermined area of said pattern.

3. Structure in accordance with claim '2, including means for coordinating the advancement of said film strip in incremental manner in accordance with the location of said carriage with respect to said cloth laying table.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3/1961 Bilibok 33-11 LEONARD FORMAN, Primary Examiner S. L. STEPHAN, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

